The Life and Times of the Watters Family

At Least, I Thought I Agreed With Dave

After a somewhat discouraging series of posts last year between April and June, there’s kind of been a moratorium on commentary about the greater weblog/syndication world. I found that nothing productive really came out of it, and I wasn’t really invested enough to continue to post about the topic. I tried it, and it was interesting for a while, but I’ve moved on.

I still read Scripting News nearly every day and I still think Dave Winer is a bit of a nutjob a fair bit of the time. Sometimes I agree with him, but I rarely feel strongly about it when I do. Usually it’s about something run-of-the-mill or otherwise meaningless. Today, however, I found myself actually rooting for Dave, which, to be honest, felt a little, well, dirty (j/k).

As I write this, though, the inspiration for my short step out of character isn’t posted on the site any longer and appears to have been replaced by this bland little item. Apparently, Dave was semi-spurned by IDG, the organizer of the Syndicate conference for posting the details of his interactions with them regarding his finding a personal sponsor for his appearance. In particular, I’m betting they didn’t like the criticism he leveled after they told him he couldn’t have a personal sponsor. He had written a very honest, but fair response to their attempt to censor his weblog by threatening his ability to speak if he didn’t stop posting the details. He said, thanks, but no thanks.

Hey, I don’t agree with the guy very often, but I sure appreciated what appeared to be his stand on this issue. I hope he re-posts it soon.

UPDATE:

Looks like I spoke too soon (about his taking it down). He just moved it off the front page. It’s posted at the bottom of this entry at reallysimplesyndication.com.

UPDATE:

BTW, the moratorium is back on. Also, Dave is back to being his good ol’ nutty self again today.

---

---

Talk About Turnover!

As I watch the apparent disintegration of the RSS Advisory Board (now down to Adam Curry and Rogers Cadenhead), frankly, I’m a little sad.

Despite his frequently distasteful style, Dave’s numerous tangible contributions to the syndication space have been enormous. It would be a shame for any of them to lose the momentum they currently enjoy. Hopefully, they’ll get the board vacancies filled by a group of people that are committed to the success and growth of the RSS 2.0 format.

---

---

The Tin-Foil Hat Club Strikes Again

Dave Winer:“I never in a million years thought Google would stoop this low, even Microsoft on its worst day never played this dirty.”

It appears that Google is fast becoming the “Evil Corporate Giant” de jour. And with Dave leading the “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” crowd, it is not surprising to see so much invective about the alleged slight to RSS 2.0.
read more…

---

---